A note about this policy:
When the university was under the umbrella of the Oregon University System, it had several Administrative Policies & Procedures Manuals (APPMs) managed by the Division of Finance & Administration. These APPMs contained policies with university-wide applicability (such as this one) and were the precursors to our University Policies and Standards. This policy has not been reformatted with the UPSM template or numbering system.
Effective: October 14, 2010
Unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing of copyrighted material, distribution of others’ copyrighted works, and illegal downloading violate federal copyright law. Federal copyright law gives copyright protection to original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression. Subject to limited exceptions, owners of the copyright in a work have exclusive rights to:
- reproduce, photocopy, or make an electronic copy of the copyrighted work;
- prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
- distribute copies of the work to the public by sale, transfer or lending;
- perform or display the work publicly.
Even if no formal copyright notice is attached, written text, music, movies, digital images, and computer software are some examples of intellectual property protected by copyright. The same legal protections for copyrighted works exist in an electronic environment as they do in a paper environment.
To the extent practical, the university offers technological alternatives to illegal downloading and P2P distribution of intellectual property, but this does not relieve students or employees of their responsibility to monitor their individual use and conduct. The university maintains a list of legal alternative sources for music, movies or other digital content on our web site at http://oregonstate.edu/filesharing, and we encourage students to take advantage of these legal methods.
In addition to the below mentioned civil and criminal penalties, unauthorized P2P sharing may include the following risks:
Malware
- Files downloaded using P2P file sharing software may be named innocuously but in actuality are installers for malicious software.
- The P2P software itself may not be trustworthy. The software may steal information from a computer, have security vulnerabilities of its own, or not completely uninstall even when attempts are made to remove it.
Privacy Issues
- More information may be shared than intended as some P2P applications look for media files on a computer and share them by default.
Penalties for Illegal Copyright Infringement
Making or distributing an electronic copy of a copyrighted work by any means constitutes a reproduction of the work, and illegal copying may subject students and others who engage in copyright infringement to significant civil and criminal penalties, including:
- Civil penalties of actual damages suffered by the copyright owner from the infringement.
- Civil penalties of statutory damages of up to $30,000.
- Civil penalties for willful infringement of up to $150,000.
- Criminal penalties for willful criminal infringement of up to 5 years of imprisonment and fines of up to $25,000 for a first offense.
Plan to Combat Unauthorized Distribution
The university uses a variety of technology-based deterrents to prevent or reduce unauthorized file-sharing, including traffic monitoring to identify large bandwidth users, bandwidth shaping, and commercial products to detect and monitor illegal file-sharing. The university responds promptly to all Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices of unauthorized copyright use according to procedures established by University Information Security. Data regarding DMCA take-down notifications issued to the university will be in the annual security report issued by the Chief Information Security Officer.
Consequences
Students who engage in illegal downloading or unauthorized file sharing of copyrighted materials, including distribution of music and movies to others through the university’s information technology system, are subject to disciplinary sanctions under the Code of Student Conduct and University Policy. Employees who engage in unauthorized downloading or file sharing of copyrighted works will be contacted through their unit administrators and will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action by the university.